Sources of New York Law

reference
law
Resources for New York laws, regulations, and related materials.
Published

February 5, 2026

Modified

February 5, 2026

Statutes

Free Official/Semi-Official Sources

  • New York State Legislature - Laws of New York - Official unannotated text of the Consolidated Laws and unconsolidated laws. Access via web interface; no API. Updated regularly.

  • NY Senate Open Legislation - Provides current statutory text through the same platform as bills. Free REST API available (requires registration for API key).

  • Cornell LII - New York - Free access to NY Constitution and Consolidated Laws with clean interface. Links to official sources. No API but well-organized for browsing.

Session Laws

Bills in Flight

Official Sources

  • NY Assembly Bill Search - Official Assembly bill tracking. Web interface for searching current and prior session bills.

  • NY Senate Open Legislation - Primary resource for real-time bill tracking. Offers a free REST API (registration required) returning JSON. Includes bill text, sponsors, committee assignments, votes, and status. Open source.

  • Leginfo - Older official interface for bill search, still functional.

Third-Party Tracking

  • LegiScan - New York - Aggregates NY legislative data with API access. Free tier available; enhanced features require subscription.

Legislative History

Legislative history materials for New York are more limited than federal sources. Key materials include: bills, sponsor’s memoranda, governor’s messages, bill jackets, and (rarely) hearing transcripts.

Research Guides

Bill Jackets

Bill jackets contain memoranda, correspondence, and other materials considered by the Governor when signing or vetoing bills. Unique to New York legislative history research.

Session Laws and Governor’s Messages

  • Governor’s approval and veto messages are published with the Session Laws and are often the most accessible legislative history documents.

Regulations

Current Regulations

  • Official NYCRR - Published in print by Thomson Reuters. No comprehensive free official online version exists.

  • Cornell LII - NYCRR - Free browsable collection of NY regulations by title. Clean interface for navigating regulatory text.

  • NYCRR on Westlaw/Lexis - Official and annotated NYCRR available on both commercial platforms. Subscription required.

  • Unofficial NYCRR on Westlaw - Free browsable collection.

Proposed Rules and Rulemaking

  • New York State Register - Official journal of state government published weekly. Contains Notices of Proposed Rule Making and Notices of Adoption. Free online from 2015-present.

Historical Regulations

  • NYCRR Digital Archive (UB Law Library) - Free access to superseded NYCRR pages (“takeouts”) for 1945-2001 in PDF format.

Agency-Specific

Individual agencies often publish their regulations on their own websites (e.g., DEC Regulations, Education Department).

Judicial Opinions

Official Free Sources

  • NY Courts - Official Reports - Free access to Court of Appeals and Appellate Division decisions from 1956-present. Slip opinions available same-day for Court of Appeals. Web interface; no public API.

  • Court-PASS - Court of Appeals Public Access and Search System. Free access to Court of Appeals materials for cases filed after January 1, 2013.

  • NY eCourts - Case information and filings for state courts. Primarily docket/status information rather than full opinions.

  • NYSCEF Case Search - New York State Courts Electronic Filing system. Access to filed documents in participating courts.

Free Third-Party Sources

  • Cornell LII - Links to NY court opinions and encyclopedic legal information. Strong for constitutional and statutory interpretation context.
  • Google Scholar - Searchable NY case law. Free but unofficial; useful for quick research.
  • Justia - Free NY case law database.
  • Findlaw - NY Supreme Court opinions from 1959-present.